Articles

Jason Davis

The two small spacecraft are the size and shape of cheese wheels, and can autonomously hop around the surface.

MaryLiz Bender

On February 6, 2018, I found myself shoulder to shoulder with two of my heroes: Bill Nye on the left, Buzz Aldrin on the right. Our eyes were fixed on the first vertical Falcon Heavy rocket. Figuring the world's most powerful rocket might send me flying backwards once the countdown hit zero, I gripped the railing so tightly I started to lose the feeling in my fingertips.

Jason Davis

On Jan. 1, NASA's New Horizons will perform a high-risk, high-reward flyby of an ancient world on the outskirts of the solar system.

Emily Lakdawalla

Attention Kiwi space fans! I’m embarking shortly on a speaking tour of New Zealand. I hope to meet lots of Planetary Society members and supporters, and sign a few copies of my book.

Emily Lakdawalla

Emily Lakdawalla introduces an at-a-glance spacecraft locator to The Planetary Report.

Casey Dreier

Casey Dreier observes the genesis of a new space agency in Australia, and how The Planetary Society helped make it happen.

Sriram Bhiravarasu

Sriram Bhiravarasu anticipates India’s 2019 lunar venture with an orbiter, lander, and rover.

Long Xiao

Long Xiao previews two ambitious Chinese lunar missions, one of which will make the first-ever landing on the far side of the Moon.

Elsa Montagnon

Elsa Montagnon details the challenges of delivering BepiColombo’s two spacecraft from Earth to Mercury.

Emily Lakdawalla

With my first issue of The Planetary Report as editor, I am taking the magazine open-access. Return to Mercury features articles by Elsa Montagnon on BepiColombo and by Long Xiao on the Chang'e-4 and -5 landers.

Kate Howells

On 7 September, down the street from the NAFTA meetings in Washington D.C., the Canada Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars hosted a meeting of many thought leaders from both countries to discuss a point of uncertainty in the Canada-United States relationship: collaboration in space.

Mattias Malmer

Mattias Malmer made it a little easier to figure out what Philae really saw in 2014.

Emily Lakdawalla

Hayabusa2 didn’t quite make it down to its intended 60-meter distance from asteroid Ryugu yesterday. There is nothing wrong with the spacecraft; it’s healthy and returning to its home position. The team will adjust parameters and give it another try in the future.

Jason Davis

This Saturday, the final Delta II rocket will launch NASA's ICESat-2 spacecraft into orbit.

A.J.S. Rayl

The dust raising power of the storms that wrapped Mars in a cloud in June and July diminished in August. Meanwhile, on Earth, the Opportunity team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reviewed recovery plans, conducted additional simulations, and began wrapping the month with newfound reasons to believe Opportunity can emerge from her hibernation.

Jason Davis

NASA is planning for a 30-day mission to lunar orbit in 2024.

Emily Lakdawalla

Heedless of the (now-dissipating) dust storm, Curiosity has achieved its first successful drill into rocks that form the Vera Rubin ridge, and is hopefully on the way to a second. It took three attempts for Curiosity to find a soft enough spot, with Voyageurs and Ailsa Craig being too tough, but Stoer proved obligingly soft on sol 2136.

Marc Rayman

Like its human colleagues, Dawn started out on Earth, but now its permanent residence in the solar system, Ceres, is far, far away. Let's bring this cosmic landscape into perspective.

Marc Rayman

A fantastic story of adventure, exploration and discovery is reaching its denouement. In the final phase of its long and productive deep-space mission, Dawn is operating flawlessly in orbit around dwarf planet Ceres.

Emily Lakdawalla

Both OSIRIS-REx and New Horizons achieved first light on their still-distant targets this week. Between now and the end of 2018, Bennu and 2014 MU69 will turn from points of light into places.